


From Far Elsewhere

by Katherine



Category: The Giver - Lois Lowry, Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 18:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6089383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonas is holding Gabe, his free hand faltering on the child-seat of Father's bicycle. Jonas had let Gabe take the memory of horses, so Jonas has it left only in wisps. (A herd of horses still in Jonas's memory, but softened like their manes and tails in the wind.) Yet that image seems vivid now as he sees what is standing in front of his dwelling.</p><p>The creature is to the memory of horses as the apple was when Jonas first Saw Beyond.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Far Elsewhere

Jonas is holding Gabe, his free hand faltering on the child-seat of Father's bicycle. Jonas had let Gabe take the memory of horses, so Jonas has it left only in wisps. (A herd of horses still in Jonas's memory, but softened like their manes and tails in the wind.) Yet that image seems vivid now as he sees what is standing in front of his dwelling.

The creature is to the memory of horses as the apple was when Jonas first Saw Beyond. She is like a horse in shape and size, yet has another quality. Her hooves shine like the gilt titles on the Giver's many books. Her coat is white as remembered snow. It has the crystalline depths that Jonas came to know snow has, when he looked closely in the memories that he received from the Giver.

Then she is stepping closer to him, lightly as his memory of birds, and her eyes are more blue than the first time he saw a summer sky.

The moment her eyes meet his is like receiving a memory, when Jonas at the same time knows he is lying in the Giver's room, under his hands, and is moving within the past. Seeing Beyond.

Jonas finds he is whispering into one cupped, horselike ear. "Are you from Elsewhere?"

The answer settles into his mind: _:I am from far Elsewhere, and I have Chosen you.:_ The _chosen_ feels weighted more than an ordinary word, as if it were an Assignment. Or a selection.

There is an outpouring of feeling from her that reminds Jonas, distantly, of how the Chief Elder spoke when she announced Jonas' selection as Receiver. He had been singled out then, told he had intelligence and courage.

Gabe moves a little, and Jonas wraps his arms more tightly around the newchild. "I have to save—"

 _:Bring him. Leave that bicycle:_ (In his mind, there's a distance to the word, as if it is unfamiliar to her.) _:You will ride on me, Jonas. I am your Companion, and I will bring you to Elsewhere.:_

What he feels from his Companion is more than being selected. The emotion surrounds him, warm as a holiday fire in a home, warm as being in a room with family from back and back and back. He feels love.


End file.
